A "transfer tail" is well known in the textile trade as a short length of yarn at the beginning of a wound yarn package and which is used in creeling to tie the end of one package to the beginning of another package. With a transfer tail, it is possible, without stopping a machine or process, to draw yarn continuously from successive yarn packages. Thus, a creel hand or operator can remove an empty tube, replace it with a full package, and then tie the outside end of the full package to the transfer tail which is the inside end of the previous package being unwound as it supplies the process, machine, or the like. It is an undisputed fact that the use of a transfer tail makes a manufacturing process more efficient and thus more economic.
There are various known arrangements for forming transfer tails on wound yarn packages, such as yarn packages wound on bobbins or tubes. However, these known arrangements have disadvantages from the standpoints of efficient operation, economic use of available space, and ease of stringing yarn in a winder with which the known arrangements may be associated. Thus, in one known arrangement, there is a rotating or revolving mechanism mounting a pair of chucks and which is used with a so-called "single chuck" arrangement, namely, an arrangement in which there may be two chucks but with only one chuck being in engagement at a time so that only one or more bobbins are driven at a time. With this particular arrangement, two or more full bobbins are mounted on the mechanism on diametrically opposite sides thereof, and only the bobbin or bobbins on one side are driven at a time. When the first bobbins have been substantially completely unwound, the two chucks are rotated as a unit and the second bobbins are brought into driving engagement with the first bobbins being taken out of driving engagement. When used with large bobbins, such as those of the order of ten inches or larger in diameter, this known system becomes very bulky and requires a great deal of space with respect to the amount of yarn which can be wound on the bobbins as well as with respect to its operation. Consequently, it would be highly desirable to provide a transfer tail forming mechanism requiring a great deal less space and having a much simpler and more efficient construction than known mechanisms for forming transfer tails on wound yarn packages.